The paper outlines the functioning of Hungarian weekend schools in the United Kingdom, which are key institutions in emerging diaspora communities. The paper interprets Hungarian weekend schools in two paradigms: it approaches them as diaspora institutions, and also as Anglo-Saxon supplementary schools. One of the paper's main conclusions is that,…

The COVID-19 lockdown in the UK during the spring of 2020 led to the closure of schools and school premises to most students, including complementary school pupils; yet while the lockdown in autumn 2020 allowed state schools to remain open, Polish complementary schools found themselves in an ambiguous position. This paper explores the experiences…

Digital storytelling is a method often preferred in the education process in terms of its appeal to different senses by creating a multimedia environment, and it may also be used in the development of language skills as it often includes both textual and audio elements. The current study investigates the research trends of digital storytelling,…

Following a period of close to a century when the Irish language was placed at the margins of the education system under British rule, there was a radical change in curriculum provision following political independence in Ireland in the 1920s. The importance of the Irish language in defining sovereignty, national identity, and nationhood in the…

The beginnings of Polish emigration to the British Isles date back to the 16th century, but a particularly large Polish diaspora was established after World War II when many soldiers stayed in Great Britain because they could not return to communist Poland for fear of persecution. The largest wave of emigration, however, occurred after Poland…

This book investigates the social, political and educational role of community language education in migratory contexts. It draws on an ethnographic study that investigates the significance of Mandarin-Chinese community schooling in Britain as an intercultural space for those involved. To understand the interrelation of 'language', 'culture' and…

This article explores the positioning of a sample of Arabic complementary language schools in the context of the UK government's discourse and promotion of so-called Fundamental British Values. While there is considerable social and political debate about radicalisation in Arab communities, teachers in the sample are deeply committed to a form of…

Heritage language education is distinct from the field of second language acquisition due to having the concept of identity always at its core (Leeman, Rabin, & Roman-Mendoza, 2012). This paper draws on this concept and presents an action research study focusing on the teaching and learning of Greek as a heritage language in the context of…

This article explores policy and practice in relation to support for speakers of community languages in Northern Ireland primary schools against the backdrop of the broader UK context, with reference also to the Republic of Ireland and wider European and international experiences. After an initial discussion of the educational, social and…

This chapter describes a collection of selected papers from the 2017 Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University conference (InnoConf), which took place in June 2017 at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. The theme of the conference was "Integrating Informal Learning into Formal Language Education." The aim of the…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise description of the European minority language, Cornish, in education. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects such as the number of schools, teachers,…

This article examines multilingual interactions in the complementary school classroom for ethnic Chinese children in the UK. Through a detailed analysis of classroom exchanges amongst the children and their teachers, the study aims to demonstrate how they alternate between different varieties of Chinese and English and different modes of…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise, description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects, such as the…

Complementary schools in the United Kingdom (UK) are community organised schools with the general aim of teaching younger generations their "native" languages and cultures. However, the aims and practices of these schools are predominantly dependent on changes in the social and political contexts both in the host country (in this case…

Pupils' experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are highly important in terms of understanding complementary schools and their impact on pupils' educational and social identities. This article explores British-Chinese pupils' discursive constructions of the purposes and benefits of Chinese…